Inland Steel Co.

217 Ct. Cl. 647, 43 A.F.T.R.2d (RIA) 326, 1978 U.S. Ct. Cl. LEXIS 149, 1978 WL 3452
CourtUnited States Court of Claims
DecidedMay 19, 1978
DocketNo. 481-76
StatusPublished
Cited by4 cases

This text of 217 Ct. Cl. 647 (Inland Steel Co.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering United States Court of Claims primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Inland Steel Co., 217 Ct. Cl. 647, 43 A.F.T.R.2d (RIA) 326, 1978 U.S. Ct. Cl. LEXIS 149, 1978 WL 3452 (cc 1978).

Opinion

[648]*648This corporate income tax case is before the court on the plaintiffs motion for partial summary judgment and the defendant’s cross-motion for partial summary judgment. Oral argument has been had.

Inland Steel is an accrual basis taxpayer, which seeks to deduct liabilities accrued in the taxable calendar years 1964 and 1965, and incurred under a Supplemental Unemployment Benefit (SUB) Plan set up pursuant to a collective bargaining agreement with the United Steelworkers of America, dated April 6, 1962. The deductibility of accruals under the SUB Plan for calendar years 1962 and 1963 was before this court in Inland Steel Company v. United States, 212 Ct. Cl. 558, 76-2 U.S.T.C. ¶9791 (1976).1 Under the SUB Plan, part of a company’s obligations to the Plan had to be met with cash payments to the trust; the other part of the obligations, called "contingent liability,”2 were accrued as a liability of the company and were noncancellable; they did not have to be funded except to the extent necessary to provide SUB benefits under the Plan after the funds in the trust were exhausted. The sole issue before the court in the prior action was whether the "contingent liability” obligations accrued under the 1962 SUB Plan met the "all-events” test under I.R.C. §461, when the amount of the obligation was fixed and absolute but the time of payment was indefinite. This court, relying on its decision in Washington Post Co. v. United States, 186 Ct. Cl. 528, 405 F. 2d 1279 (1969), nonacq. Rev. Rul. 76-345, 1976-2 C.B. 134, held that the "all-events” test had been satisfied and granted the plaintiffs motion for summary judgment. The plaintiff now seeks summary judgment in regard to accruals made under the SUB Plan for the 1964 and 1965 calendar years and argues that the issue is governed by the doctrines of stare decisis and collateral estoppel. The defendant recognizes that the question of the fulfillment of [649]*649the "all-events” test is controlled by the earlier Inland Steel decision (which defendant considers incorrect) but counters that in the taxable years from 1962 through 1965 it was possible to transfer part of the accruals under the SUB Plan to savings and vacation plans (a new such plan was started in 1964), that I.R.C. §404, which disallows deductions for accruals under deferred compensation plans, is therefore applicable, and that this issue was not raised in Inland Steel I. The plaintiff answers that there is no significant difference in the savings and vacation plans in force in the various years (except that the benefits are more liberal under the 1964 plan) and that Inland Steel I must have decided sub silentio that § 404 was not applicable.

We hold, first, that, as the Government concedes, Inland Steel I governs the "all-events” issue, and that plaintiff is entitled to summary judgment on that question both on the ground of collateral estoppel and on stare decisis. On the "all-events” question, defendant claims neither a change in the facts with respect to this taxpayer, nor in the law; accordingly, the matter is one for collateral estoppel. Commissioner v. Sunnen, 333 U.S. 591 (1948). As for the precedents, all courts which have faced the issue have decided the same way we did in Inland Steel I. See Lukens Steel Co., supra; Cyclops Corp. v. United States, 408 F. Supp. 1287 (W.D. Pa. 1976); Reynolds Metal Co., 68 T.C.943 (1977).

Whether defendant can maintain its defense under § 404 for the years 1964-1965 is more difficult. In resolving that problem it will be helpful to examine the 1962 Savings and Vacation (SV) Plan in comparison with the 1964 Revised Savings and Vacation (RSV) Plan.

Under the SV Plan of 1962, benefits were financed from a Financial Availability Account (FAA); accruals were made in the FAA at the rate of 3 cents for each hour worked by the employees of the company. In addition, accruals could be transferred from the SUB Plan to the SV Plan’s Financial Availability Account. Under the SUB Plan, if the amounts required to bring the SUB Plan to "maximum financing” were less than the maximum monthly obligation of the company during a given month, the difference between the maximum monthly obligation and the amount required to bring the Plan to maximum financing accrued (subject to certain limitations on amount) to the SUB Plan account; such accruals in excess of maximum financing were available for financing either [650]*650SUB Plan benefits or for transfer to the SV Plan’s Financial Availability Account if necessary to finance retirement and vacation benefits under the SV Plan.3

The SV Plan provided both benefits available on retirement and vacation benefits. A retiring employee would receive a week of vacation pay for every five years of continuous service prior to January 1, 1961. A system was also created for providing vacation benefits, in which an employee could be credited with up to one vacation unit (depending upon the number of weeks worked) for each two-year period. On each quarterly calculation date employees credited with one or more vacation units could become entitled to vacation benefits, which were allocated to employees in the order of their continuous service to the extent funding was available in the FAA; an employee was not entitled to a vacation benefit unless he had at least one vacation unit. Employees becoming entitled to vacation benefits could take the benefits as vacation during the current or succeeding calendar year or defer the vacation for more than two years from the time of entitlement or defer receipt of the benefit until retirement.

Extensive changes seem to have been made in the vacation and retirement benefits provided under the 1964 RSV Plan. Under that later plan the work force was divided in order of decreasing continuous service into two halves, a Senior Group and a Junior Group. It was intended that during a five-year period each member of the Senior Group would receive an Extended Vacation Benefit (EV), which was a monetary benefit equal to 13 weeks paid vacation less the employee’s regular paid vacation to which he was entitled on the basis of his years of service. On quarterly calculation dates a quota of 5% of the employees in the Senior Group was established in order of descending continuous service, and EV were allocated to those employees to the extent of available finances in the FAA. There was also a system of Single-Week Vacation Benefits (SWV), equivalent to vacation pay for a week. For the first cycle the allocation of the SWV was in accordance with a priority list in order of descending continuous service of all employees with two or more years of continuous service, but for the second and third cycles of SWV during a five-year period the list was limited to employees in the Junior [651]*651Group. On each quarterly calculation date the balance of the FAA was allocated first to provide for as many EV as possible to satisfy the quota of 5% of the Senior Group, and the balance was used to provide for SWV.

There were a number of provisions in the 1964 RSV Plan providing benefits for employees upon retirement. An employee in the Senior Group who retired during a five-year period before he became entitled to an EV under the quota system was given an EV Retirement Benefit equivalent to an EV (but the base period for calculating the pay was changed), and the benefit was payable at the time of retirement.

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Related

Inland Steel Co. v. United States
677 F.2d 72 (Court of Claims, 1982)
General Steel Industries, Inc.
221 Ct. Cl. 858 (Court of Claims, 1979)
Armco, Inc.
219 Ct. Cl. 665 (Court of Claims, 1979)
Crucible Inc. v. United States
591 F.2d 643 (Court of Claims, 1979)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
217 Ct. Cl. 647, 43 A.F.T.R.2d (RIA) 326, 1978 U.S. Ct. Cl. LEXIS 149, 1978 WL 3452, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/inland-steel-co-cc-1978.